2007-12-08 16:57:05 · 16 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
Futuristic question...
I can tell you that the Sun is expected to quadruple in size in 4 1/2 Billion years when it runs out of Hydrogen to convert into Helium. at that point it will begin using helium to convert to ??? and things will begin the critical stage.
With the expansion of the Sun, many nearby planets are expected to be sucked into the mass of the Sun...Mercury and Venus are likely immediate targets. Earth is next on the list, and after the Sun's expansion, most everything on Earth will have been fried to a crisp anyhow.
These things will happen way in the future so there is nothing to worry about right now.
Blowing up ...hmm-m. That might occur after several fuel sources have been exhausted on the Sun. Dates? Time Frames? Unknown at this time.
2007-12-08 20:15:34 · answer #1 · answered by zahbudar 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No. The sun's mass is far too low to go supernova.
What WILL happen, however, is in about 5 billion years, the sun will run out of hydrogen at its core. When this happens, the core temperature will drop and the sun will begin to collapse under the influence of gravity until the pressure at the core is great enough that helium fusion will begin (forming carbon and oxygen.) Hydrogen will also start to fuse in an expanding shell around the core.
The combined energy output of these processes is much higher than the energy output of hydrogen burning alone, so the core temperature will increase greatly, causing the sun's outer layers to expand to perhaps beyond the earth's orbit. At this stage, the sun will have become a red giant star.
Variations in the energy output will cause a series of expansions and contractions of the sun, and much of its mass will be lost into space due to solar wind, forming a planetary (or ring) nebula.
Eventually, the sun will exhaust its supply of helium also. At this point all fusion will cease and the sun will again collapse under gravity. Since the sun is not massive enough for carbon or oxygen fusion to begin, so it will no longer generate new energy. It will simply radiate away its remaining heat over a period of perhaps 20 billion years as a white dwarf.
2007-12-09 01:15:38 · answer #2 · answered by phoenixshade 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
"Blow up"? Not in the way that you probably mean it, no. In about five billion years, the sun will start to expand and enter its red giant phase, at which time its diameter will increase to the point that Earth will be enveloped within it. But that's five billion years from now, which is effectively never as far as humanity is concerned.
2007-12-09 08:38:36 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
The Sun will become a Red Giant and make disappear all life on Earth some 6,000 million years from now, when its hydrogen comes to and end.
2007-12-09 02:07:29 · answer #4 · answered by Asker 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
if the sun is left to its natural life cycle then yeah, it's gonna blow. actually, hydrogen fusion will cease, it will start the helium cycle of its fusion, expand to the martian orbit, the blow off its outer gas layers in a nova. what will be left will be a white dwarf, followed by a black dwarf when it ultimately cools and dies.
it won't ever go super nova and literally explode.
2007-12-09 01:03:35 · answer #5 · answered by ? 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
no. it won't blow up. but it will eventually swell into a red giant which will devour the inner planets. after it swells it will shrink into a dwarf star. and even the gaseous saturn and jupiter will freeze.
millions of years from now. we have a better chance of extinction from the moon wandering into the van allen radiation belts and shattering to form a ring. the ring will then form a shadow and any area in that shadow will fail to thrive. temps will drop to sub freezing in the area. and it's bound to affect many areas that are vital to the food web.
within a period of a few months...life as we know it on earth will cease to exist...
2007-12-09 01:02:56 · answer #6 · answered by Erica W 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes. Actually, it will. I'm not sure exactly when, but I'm pretty sure in about 300 billion years, the sun will eventually evolve into a "white dwarf" and then explode. It will kill everyone on Earth.
2007-12-09 01:00:52 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
It will become a giant first and the shrink to become a dwarf and then blow up as a supernova in 2012...maybe. Should I throw a sending off party? ...and hey, where will the wake be?
I guess the Earth will be cremated... or perhaps have a traditional burial ?
2007-12-09 01:06:56 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 2⤋
It's blowing up right now. I'm more worried about when it stops blowing up.
2007-12-09 01:00:12 · answer #9 · answered by Cosmodot 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It will eventually run out of fuel and collapse. This may cause an implosion, which would send our planet careening into the depths of space.
2007-12-09 01:00:29 · answer #10 · answered by Upright Man 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋